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####### ######## ######## ###########
### ### ## ### ## # ### # Interpersonal Computing and
### ### ## ### ## ### Technology:
### ### ## ### ### An Electronic Journal for
### ######## ### ### the 21st Century
### ### ### ###
### ### ### ## ### ISSN: 1064-4326
### ### ### ## ### April, 1993
####### ### ######## ### Volume 1, Number 2
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Published by the Center for Teaching and Technology, Academic Computer
Center, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
Additional support provided by the Center for Academic Computing,
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
This article is archived as GRELLER IPCTV1N2 on LISTSERV@GUVM
(LISTSERV@GUVM.GEORGETOWN.EDU)
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GROUPWARE AND INTERPERSONAL TEXT: THE COMPUTER AS
A MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION
Leonore M. Greller, City College of New York, New York, NY
and Sue Barnes, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY
ABSTRACT
It is axiomatic that in order for interpersonal communication to
take place, verbal messages and their feedback must occur in real
time and space. The computer, through a software process known
as "groupware", enables "several users to work on the same
document at the same time" (MacUser, June 1991, p. 207), while
transferring and manipulating "interpersonal text" in real time
and space. Thus, with groupware, verbal communication is not
required for interpersonal communication to occur, and the
computer can be used as a medium of communication. Groupware and
its symbolic code of interpersonal text is extending our
traditional definitions of interpersonal and small group
communication while it challenges our definition of mediated
communication.
INTRODUCTION
Computer technology, with its ability to transmit, store and
retrieve individual data and messages "has now emerged as one of
the major communication technologies in the world" (Chesebro &
Bonsall, 1989, p. 30). However, a distinction must be made
between the use of the computer as a technology or as a tool with
which to perform tasks such as wordprocessing or database
retrieval, and its use as a medium of communication.
According to Neil Postman (1986), while "a technology. . .
is merely a machine," it "becomes a medium as it employs a
symbolic code, as it finds its place in a particular social
setting" (p. 86). Thus, "a medium is the social and intellectual
environment a machine creates" (p. 86). When people use their
personal computers or workstations as a medium of communication,
they use them to connect to a network of other users in order to
exchange information and ideas within the medium's social and
intellectual environment.
The Internet is one example of how the computer can be used
as a medium of communication. The Internet is "a collection of
networks around the world that links military, university, and
research sites. . . millions of computer [users] . . .
participate in a kind of electronic village" (Ward, 1992, p. 99).
The growth of the Internet has increased so rapidly that
estimates of how many people are using the Internet for military,
university, and research projects ranges from two million (Hafner
& Markoff, 1991) to three million users daily (Schoffstall,
1991).
Recognizing both the rapid growth of networking systems and
the increased volume of messages sent and received over the
networks, computer manufacturers and software developers are
continuing to enhance the networking capabilities of their
products. These enhancements include enabling computer users who
are connected to local and wide area networks to have the ability
to share and receive documents and messages (Apple Computer,
Inc., 1991; Norton & Schafer, 1992; Scherer, 1992)
There is no question that "the personal computer is
gradually becoming the interpersonal computer" (Johansen, 1988,
p. 1) and that with this shift, computerized communication is
becoming "computer-user communication," transforming the manner
and methods through which we communicate with one another. The
relation of the personal computer "to the user will change from
that of an isolated productivity tool to that of an active
collaborator in the acquisition, use and creation of information,
as well as a facilitator of human interaction" (Tesler, 1991, p.
86).
Clearly, it is time to examine how the use of the computer
as a medium of communication affects the process of human
communication. This paper will specifically examine how the
introduction and use of "groupware" not only extends our
traditional definitions of human communication systems
(interpersonal and small group), but it also challenges our
definition of mediated communication. Further, this paper
examines how groupware users create a new social and intellectual
symbolic environment which the authors herein refer to as
"interpersonal text."
Using the systems or transactional perspectives, human
communication occurs within an environment "in which two
[interpersonal/dyadic] or more persons [small group] attempt to
consciously or unconsciously influence each other through the use
of symbol systems. . . All communicators within the system are
interrelated and interdependent" (Emmert & Donaghy, 1981, p. 47).
The process of human communication is inevitable, irreversible,
continuous, circular, unrepeatable, and has both context and
relationship dimensions (DeVito, 1988; Barnlund, 1970).
Further, human communication systems experience at least
three stages of evolution: "(1) initiation, in which the system
is first formed and comes into being; (2) operation, in which the
system performs its behaviors and functions; and (3) termination,
in which the system ceases to function" (Emmert & Donaghy, 1981,
p. 233). Small groups undergo four stages of evolution:
Orientation, conflict, emergence, and reinforcement (Emmert &
Donaghy, 1981).
Small groups are further classified according to their
function: They are classified as consummatory when organized for
social purposes, but they are classified as instrumental or
problem-solving when organized to accomplish a task. (Emmert &
Donaghy, 1981). Thus, the participants of the instrumental small
group "engage in the interaction to accomplish a goal above and
beyond the pleasure derived from communication itself. . . .
[They] communicate with each other in order to achieve a goal
that can be reached only through instrumental. . . communication"
(Emmert & Donaghy, 1981, p. 232).
Designed specifically for use by instrumental small groups,
"Groupware is a generic term for specialized computer aids
designed . . . for project-oriented teams that have important
tasks and tight deadlines" (Johansen, 1988, p. 1). Groupware
enables "several users to work on the same document at the same
time," (MacUser, June 1991, p. 207) thereby creating a "process
in which two or more persons. . . influence each other through
the use of symbol systems " (Emmert & Donaghy, 1981, p. 47) and
"engage in the interaction to accomplish a goal" (1981, p. 232).
Today, groupware is not only being used by medical researchers
(Schrage, 1991), military personnel (Olsen, 1992), attorneys
(Andrews, 1991) and other knowledge workers (Hwang, 1991), but it
is also being used in the classroom to develop writing skills and
enhance the process of small group communication (Porter, 1992).
Prior to the introduction of groupware, human communication
systems were often referred to as either face-to-face or as
mediated, that is, "mediated by some mechanical or electronic
device(s)" (Emmert & Donaghy, 1981, p. 226). Mediated
communication was first distinguished from face-to-face
communication because, although a person communicating with
another person by telephone or telegraph could respond
immediately to the messages each person sent and received, there
was no visual channel of information. With the introduction of
movies and television, there was a visual channel of information,
but the absence of face-to-face interaction made it impossible
for each communicator to respond immediately (Emmert & Donaghy,
1981).
This response, often referred to as "feedback" in the
communications discipline, is, as Emmert and Donaghy (1981)
explain, "not simply a nice thing to include in a discussion of
communication. It may well be the essence of a communication
system" (p. 38). According to Emmert and Donaghy (1981), "the
mediating characteristic of [television and film] and print media
makes it impossible for feedback to be immediate" (p. 226). In
fact, although these media receive delayed feedback through
isolated personal responses from their viewers through telephone
calls and letters to their personnel, immediate feedback does not
occur. Rather, audience reaction is inferred from ratings and
market share.
Thus, "In real human communication, the sender has to be not
only in the sender position but also in the receiver position
before he or she can send anything. . . . Human communication is
never one-way. Always, it not only calls for response but is
shaped in its very form and content by anticipated response"
(Ong, 1982, p. 176).
Using groupware, the response to a person's communication is
not only immediate, but the visual channel is present as well.
Each communicator not only uses the visual channel (the computer
monitor) to relate the communication through text, but each
communication that is being related becomes the message. Thus,
verbal messages and their feedback, or the symbol system of
speech, are no longer required for human communication to take
place. With the introduction and use of groupware, the computer
is no longer a medium of mediated communication, but rather it is
a medium of human communication. Groupware users engage in human
communication in a new symbolic environment called "interpersonal
text."
Interpersonal text is the method of communication which
groupware-users employ to edit or create documents or to engage
in an "electronic conversation." For example, a medical
researcher in Colorado and his colleague in Maryland are writing
a research paper. As each colleague re-writes or edits the
document, both colleagues are simultaneously viewing their
computer screens and seeing the changes as they are being made
(Schrage, 1991; Electronic brainstorming, 1991). This enables
the researchers to "simulate the experience of collaborating in
the same room, tearing down the barriers of geography"
(Electronic brainstorming, 1991, p. 11). "This new environment
has transformed both the speed and quality of their relationship;
the editing process is now more like a dialogue than a set of
soliloquies." (Schrage, 1991, p. 505).
While the researchers are writing or editing their document,
they can communicate additional information "through a separate
'chat' window. . . by typing messages to each other, outside of
the documents being created, edited or reviewed" (Electronic
brainstorming, 1991, p. 11). Using the "Chat Box" window, the
researchers engage in electronic conversation. Electronic
conversations can be printed and saved for future reference.
Saving electronic conversations eliminates the problems many
people encounter during face-to-face or telephone communications
which include communicating a good idea but then losing one's
train of thought, and the inability to logically and sequentially
repeat the argument after communicating it to one's colleague.
Interpersonal text, from which electronic conversation is
derived, is a symbol system which can be understood and
responded to in real time and space as well as stored and
retrieved for use at a later time. "The sequential processing
and spatializing of the word, initiated by writing and . . .
intensified by the computer. . . maximizes the word to space and
to (electronic) local motion and optimizes analytic sequentiality
by making it virtually instantaneous" (Ong, 1982, p. 136).
In essence, just as voice is the channel for the symbolic
environment of speech which is used to create spoken language,
the computer is the channel for the symbolic environment of
interpersonal text which is used not only to simultaneously write
and edit documents, but also to engage in electronic conversation
concerning the documents or other matters.
It should be noted that interpersonal text does not record
speech nor does it replace printed text. Just as "writing, for
example, didn't record oral language; it was a new language,
which the spoken word came to imitate" (Carpenter, 1960, p. 162),
interpersonal text is a new symbolic environment or language, and
it is and will, as all new languages do, codify reality
differently (Carpenter, 1960; Eisenstein, 1983).
Interpersonal text codifies the users' reality differently
because it incorporates the printed word or language of the book
(text) with the verbal patterns of speech. It transforms the
static page into an active conversation. Thus, interpersonal
text is a language of conversation for action rather than a
channel of words with which to convey information (Winograd,
1988). The transformation from static text to active text
enables a person to communicate visual textual information
simultaneously to one or more participants and to engage in an
active conversation. Interpersonal text is action-oriented in
that it enables a minimum of a two-way conversation through the
visual channel of the computer screen, without the necessity of
the communicators being present in the same room.
Although the participants are not in the same room, they
still experience the three stages of evolution of human
communication systems, that is, initiation, operation and
termination. At the initiation stage, the system is formed and
comes into being at the point that two or more groupware users
agree to engage in creating interpersonal text or electronic
conversation. The operation stage occurs when the participants
are interacting by creating interpersonal text or electronic
conversation. Termination, the third and final stage of human
communication systems, occurs when the communicators agree to
cease the communication. Hence, by using the computer as a
medium of communication, groupware users experience the evolution
of human communication systems and engage in interpersonal and
small group communication through a new social and intellectual
environment.
The advent of groupware and its symbolic code of
interpersonal text extends our current definitions of
interpersonal and small group communication and challenges our
definition of mediated communication because feedback is no
longer delayed. Thus, the distinction which communications
theory has made between face-to-face communication (interpersonal
and small group) and mediated communication is not applicable to
the computer when it is used as a medium of communication.
As Innis stated, "A medium of communication has an important
influence on the dissemination of knowledge over space and time
and it becomes necessary to study its characteristics in order to
appraise its influence in its cultural setting" (Innis, 1951, p.
33). The computer as a medium of communication is no longer
influencing the cultural setting, but rather it is changing it by
extending the process of human communication through the creation
of a new symbolic environment called interpersonal text. No
other medium of communication can collapse both space and time
and store and retrieve the information exchanged during the
process. McLuhan's vision of a global village is now fulfilled:
"'Time' has ceased, 'space' has vanished. We now live in a
global village" (McLuhan & Fiore, 1967, p. 63).
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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Leonore M. Greller is a part-time faculty member of the
Department of Communications Film and Video at The City College of
New York, specializing in communications theory. She is also a
practicing attorney. She received her Master of Arts Degree in
Communications from New York University, the Department of Media
Ecology, and her Juris Doctor from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of
Law.
Leonore M. Greller
City College of New York
7 Great Jones Street
New York, New York 10012-1100
212-254-1865 FAX: 212-254-2175
LMGCC@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Sue Barnes, M.F.A., is an adjunct assistant professor in the
Advertising & Communications Department, and a member of Academic
Computing at the Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY. Recently,
she won a national contest for developing computer-aided
instructional materials for courses at F.I.T. She is currently
writing her dissertation in the Media Ecology Department at N.Y.U.
on the history and development of the graphical user interface and
its social consequences. Professionally, she is an authorized Apple
Consultant and multimedia designer.
Sue Barnes
Fashion Institute of Technology
1200 Broadway
New York, New York 10001
212-679-0086 FAX: 212-576-1180
BARNESSU@SNYFITVA.BITNET
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Interpersonal Computing and Technology: An Electronic Journal for the
21st Century
Copyright 1993 Georgetown University. Copyright of individual
articles in this publication is retained by the individual
authors. Copyright of the compilation as a whole is held by
Georgetown University. It is asked that any republication of this
article state that the article was first published in IPCT-J.
Contributions to IPCT-J can be submitted by electronic mail in
APA style to: Gerald Phillips, Editor IPCT-J GMP3@PSUVM.PSU.EDU